You Dreamed of Empire (2024) by Alvaro Enrigue

 Book Review

You Dreamed of Empire (2024)

by Alvaro Enrigue

   I convinced my book club to read this book this month (March 2024)- I was very excited when I read the description- which is- a compression of the meeting between Conquistador Cortes and Montezuma, the Aztec emperor.   This is a specific subject I often think about- a "Roman Empire" for me, to use the current meme.   What, exactly, happened that allowed the Aztec empire to be defeated by what can only be described as a rag-tag bunch of adventurers, albeit ones with firearms, cannon and horses- which play a central role in this book (the horses), specifically, Enrigue proposes that Montezuma wanted to get his hands on the horses also that he was high on mushrooms the whole time and had essentially become obsessed with the Aztec religion, to the detriment of his empire.

   I thought the whole book was very good- great even- and I agree with reviewers who said that Enigue is a major talent.  Can't wait to see what he does next, and I'm going to read the hardback in addition to listening to the Audiobook- which wasn't great, even though the book was.  For some reason they hired an Audiobook narrator who spoke in Spanish accented English, which seemed kind of dumb to me.  If anything he should have had an Aztec or Mayan accent, based on the ethnicity of the narrators. 

  I would call You Dreamed of Empire a must for readers of fiction in translation and maybe one of the best books of the year. Certainly the best book so far this year.  Don't listen to the Audiobook though, read the book.